These bills represent important steps towards modernizing the District of Columbia’s medical marijuana program. ASA supports both bills, but is seeking improvements to B21-210 to ensure adequate supply and address technical issues. ASA also asked the Council to add delivery and civil protections to the bill.

The Medical Marijuana Laboratory Testing Amendment Act would allow DC to finally have laboratory testing by third parties. This is an essential step for patients to have the confidence they deserve in their medicine. The Medical Marijuana Reciprocity Amendment Act of 2015 is also an important reform, however with the dramatic shortages of medicine in DC’s current system allowing out of the District patients access to the dispensaries would be problematic until those shortages are addressed.

ASA is also asking the Council to move on protecting medical marijuana patients from civil discrimination. In the past few years we’ve seen genuinely tragic instances of parents losing custody of their children, workers being fired and even people being denied organ transplants for no other reason than their doctor recommend medical marijuana usage. These problems can be avoided in the District if the Council acts now instead of waiting.